A recipe for Cin

Use medium-sized parsnips, if possible. Large parsnips can have a woody pith that you should remove, if present. Heat the oven to 425 degrees. Peel and wash the parsnips. Remove the stalk-ends. Cut them into "french fries" of a semi-uniform size. Place them on a non-stick cookie sheet. Spray them lightly with olive oil. Sprinkle with a bit of salt, if desired. Bake them until they are soft inside, slightly crisp outside - usually 15 to 20 minutes, depending on thickness.

Select 12 parsnips of exactly 6.5" in length, each with a major
diameter of precisely 1.25". Remove exactly 0.5" of length from each
of the parsnips, from the ends nearest to their major diameter, using
a hatchet. Lathe off the outer 0.1" of skin. Use a caliper to verify
this measurement. If a parsnip is out of tolerance by more than 0.01",
sand it for 50 seconds with 100 grit carborundum paper and remeasure.
Discard any parsnips that fall below specifications.

Table saw the remaining parsnips into uniform rectilinear pieces
measuring 3" X 0.5" X 0.3". Discard the excess or any pieces that fail
to meet specifications. Assemble the pieces on a non-stick cookie
sheet. Uniformly spray each piece on all sides with extra virgin olive
oil, 0.15 grams of oil per piece. Discard any pieces that fall outside
of specifications.

Heat the oven to 425 degrees Farehheit. Place the cookie sheet with
the one remaining fry that meets specifications into the oven. Bake
the one remaining fry until it reaches an internal temperature of 235
degrees Fahrenheit, when measured with a probe inserted to a depth of
0.15". Remove the cookie sheet.

Allow the fry to cool for 7 minutes and 00 seconds. Using the thumb
and forefinger of your right hand, firmly grasp the fry at one end of
its long axis and insert the opposing end in your mouth. Apply your
front inscisors to a point midway along the long axis of the fry and
apply them in a shearing motion until approximately one half of the
fry is disengaged from the end of the fry grasped between your
forefinger and thumb.

CAUTION! SHEARING HAZARD! DO NOT APPLY INSCISORS TO FOREFINGER OR
THUMB!

Withdraw the approximately one-half of the fry that remains in the
grasp of your fingers to a safe distance. Approximately one-half of
the fry should now sit loosely in your mouth, on your tongue. Chew
that portion of the fry between your molars with a rotary motion.

CAUTION! TONGUE BITING HAZARD! DO NOT CHEW ON YOUR TONGUE!

CAUTION! CHOKING HAZARD! MASTICATE FRY THOROUGHLY BEFORE SWALLOWING!

When the approximately one-half of the fry in your mouth is completely
masticated, swallow it. Optionally, use your toungue to chase bits of
fry out of the shallow pits in your molars and swallow them before
proceeding.

Place the remaining approximately one-half of a fry in your mouth and
repeat the chewing and swallowing activities. Optionally, wipe your
mouth and fingers with a napkin.

I should probably defer to ZX1Y47 on this, since he is the most
serious foodie at Unk's - but a parsnip is a root vegetable. It looks
a lot like a pale yellow carrot, but it is fatter at the top and
tapers more radically than a carrot.

Parsnips were especially popular in the Middle Ages, before all the
new world vegetables arrived. They have a strong, pronounced flavor -
sweeter, earthier and spicier than carrots. It's a 'peasant food',
like cabbage or turnips.

They grow well in cold climates and you can store them over the winter
in a root cellar. They say you can even just leave them in the ground
over winter, if it's well-drained, and eat them in March. Supposedly
they get sweeter if you do this, but I suspect the peasants just got
hungrier.

Look around in the produce section next time you go. They'll be near
the other root vegetables, like turnips, not prominently displayed.

You did a good job. Yep, they are good cooked that way.
Parsnips are great and easy to grow. You can leave them in the
ground into the winter. The colder the ground gets the sweeter
they are [up to the point of permafrost of course ;o)].

Well tonight we had grilled steak and shiitake mushrooms
sauteed in butter. The guy across the hall at work is doing
research on the development of gourmet mushroom production.
He weighs these things and has to throw away what we can't
use. These aren't the flimsy little things you find in the store.
These are class one; some as big as small portabellas and just
as thick. Boy are they good. The ones that I had tonight have a
spackled cap. They go for big bucks in the gourmet trade [for
whatever reason].

Will have some with eggs in the morning. They last about 2 to 3
weeks in paper bags in the crisper, but you can't imagine how
many I have. The oyster mushrooms were good this year too. He
has started working on truffels [sp; I can't spell what I can't
afford], but those won't start coming in for another year. Martha
Stewart, eat your heart out. ;o)))

You pick up the boys from school, feeling too tired to fix dinner. Oh
look, there just happens to be a McDonalds on the way home! The boys
are screaming, Mommy Mommy, can we get a happy meal? So you give in,
and while you are eating your fries, you notice that gooey cheese
dripping from their burgers. You point out the window, and tell your
boys that Ronald McDonald is out there. While they look, you grab one
of those burgers and sneak a few succulent bites of that delicious red
meat.

I'll bite. What ARE the dangers of TOFU? I've only bought it
twice. AFAIK, it needs to absorb the flavors of surrounding sauces
to taste like anything at all. It doesn't take much TOFU to add to a
dish like stir fry, so I found myself throwing the excess away.

Before I started this molecular genetics stuff, I had a large side
program in toxicology; mostly dealing with food. The largest
problem with soya based products is with children [this excludes
the problems with improperly produced products which kill many
people each year in developing countries]. Like I said before; I
would worry about being run over by a bus and not worry too
much about this one.

Tofu is great. It comes in many forms for different uses. Just
made some the other night as a snack. Take the extra firm and
cube it. Fry in your favorite oil until it is brown. Dip in soy sauce
and enjoy. If you are into meat you can fry it in bacon fat. ;o)))

There's never any need to throw out tofu just because you can't think
of what to do with it. Blended in a blender, tofu makes a great base
for a low fat creamy salad dressing. Just be sure to doctor it up with
something tasty like roasted garlic or it will be pretty bland.

Take a brick of tofu and slice it into 1/2" slices if you're going to
fry like this in slices, or cube it for a stir-fry, and put in a
shallow pan with some soy sauce, crushed garlic clove, crush a slice
of fresh ginger, maybe squeeze of fresh lime if you like, maybe fresh
ground black pepper if you like. Let it marinate for a couple of
hours. It will absorb a lot of flavor.

Then fry in a bit of oil, more oil works better than less. Let it
brown, but not burn, better to use a good wok or non-stick pan. It
will take a little while to brown, but keep stirring to brown evenly.
Or if frying in patties, turn when they get brown.
When the tofu is browned, add your veggies and continue your stir-
fry. The tofu will be better if you marinate first and then get good
and crispy if you can.

Sally Fallon is a genius in the kitchen IMO, but she just might be too
rabidly anti-soy.

Z invited you to convince him... much as he would a student. Don't you
think doing so is a good exercise, at least on principle? (Of course,
people's egos can be irritating, but that's beside the point.)

It IS quite evident that soy is B-I-I-I-I-G business, and soy money is
putting soy on a glowing pedestal which other, less well-financed food
items deserve as much or more.

I still don't know, but I tend not to trust soy as anything more than
a condiment. You have to process the living shit out of a soybean to
make it even close to edible, and that alone makes me think it can't
be that well-suited a food for us as a staple, as are vegetables and
meat and fruit. Well, you CAN eat raw soybeans (yummmmm actually),
but that has its limits.